


Calm The Storm

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard (Marvel), Childhood Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Gender Netural Reader, Magic, Past Torture, References to Depression, Romantic Friendship, Thor: The Dark World, Vanaheimr | Vanaheim, Vulnerable Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:47:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23854846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: The reader is a Vanir delegate come to Asgard to negotiate with Odin. After a long day, they take a walk and bump into their old childhood friend, Prince Loki. They spend the entire night talking and reminisce over what life could have been if things had turned out differently.Prompt: You've been crying, I can tell.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel) & Reader, Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	Calm The Storm

The gentle rush of the cool water across your toes drew the tension from your body. It had been another impossibly long day of political talks with Odin and you were glad of the peace. For days you and other leaders from across the realms had been discussing recent tax increases and the enforcement of rules - including the placement of weaponry - that had absolutely no place on your worlds. 

Where Asgard might be keen to shirk from its responsibilities and turn a blind eye to those in need, you were not. As such, being one of the most outspoken delegates too, you were effectively leading a revolution against the king of Asgard - and losing. It was risky, taking on the old selfish tyrant, but you couldn’t walk away with your conscience intact if you took the new rules sitting down. 

To say it had been an intense week would be a great understatement indeed. 

That was why you’d slipped out of the palace and found this beautiful spot, stumbling across it by pure chance. The rushing stream ran along the outskirts of the palace grounds, bringing water from the mountain tops down to the central lake. Perfectly clear, you could see the small creatures that swam against the current and felt a great affinity with their struggle. Unlike you, though, they seemed to be making progress. 

You fell onto your back, feet still dipped in the stream, and stared up at the night sky. So different to your home on Vanaheim but breathtaking nonetheless. You felt for the mortals on Midgard, who lifted their faces to the stars and hoped to find other life out there. They looked up with wonder and sorrow, never truly knowing that they weren’t alone. 

There were times when you would trade your knowledge of the universe for that blissful ignorance. If not for Odin’s so called protection of the other realms, you and your people would have free reign to do as they pleased. You would not be bound by the harsh rules he lauded over you. Yes, you might suffer the same loneliness as Midgardians but perhaps it would be worth it. 

Pointless conjecture, you pushed those thoughts away and instead focused on how best to proceed in the morn. There had to be a way to get Odin to relax his grasp on your realm, to create a fairer deal for you and your people. They believed in you, expected you to do the best for them, and yet there you sat worse off than when you arrived. To think that once the Vanir had once been respected by the founders of Asgard. Now you were treated as little more than an annoyance.

Clawing your hands down your face, you sat upright and swung your feet from the stream. This was pointless. No solution would present itself to your tired mind tonight. Foolish of you to assume it would. You dried your feet on the perfectly trimmed grass and headed back through the gardens towards the palace, the imposing golden structure towering above you, practically laughing at your failures. 

For the cold, impersonal nature of the palace itself, you were particularly taken by the gardens. Each hedge was perfectly trimmed, the trees unique in twisting trunk and canopies large enough to shade but without feeling overbearing. Hundreds of colourful flowers lined the paths, cultivated from rare seeds provided by each of the realms. They didn’t compete for your attention, instead coming together as one beautiful ensemble. 

A fountain, carved from the most exquisite granite, depicted a man you assumed to be Odin in a glorious battle. The gaudy addition of a king desperate to display his power and hold in every corner of his land. You shook your head as you walked passed, lamenting the marring of the otherwise beautiful gardens. 

Rounding a corner, you ran straight into another warm body. You stumbled back a few steps and uttered a few words of apology. Only when the moonlight shone on his face did you realise exactly who you had bumped into. “Your highness. Please forgive my clumsiness. I was not looking where I stepped.”

Met with a silencing hand, you bowed your head to the young prince. His expression was hidden by the shadows but the exhaustion was clear in his voice. “No harm done. Be on your - Y/N?”

“I thought you might have forgotten me over the years.”

Loki smiled, sad and fragile. Far from the confident young man you remembered, he held himself stiffly behind an illusion. Sorrow filled your heart. Life on Asgard had clearly not treated him well. Drained of practically all emotion, he said with forced levity, “How could I ever? You’re here for father’s talks?”

You nodded, aware that he couldn’t care less. This was merely a formality, a distraction from whatever darkness truly trapped his thoughts. Uncertainly, memories of his youthful, mischievous smile warring with that last, dreadful time you spoke, you asked softly, “May I join you for a walk, Sire?”

“If you desire,” he replied, after a long moment’s hesitation.

The prince offered you his arm, drawing you close as you slipped yours through the gap. Up this close, you were able to feel the tension in his muscles, the ache in his soul. Worse than that, you felt the feeble ebb and flow of his seidr as it interacted with yours. His magic, once so vibrant and explosive, brighter than a blinding supernova, was dull now, the excitement for life faded to nothing. 

You kept a respectable distance between you, a far cry to how things had once been. Your heart longed to press your body to his side, to have him sling his arm around your shoulder and disregard royal protocol entirely. No matter how you wished for that old dynamic, you knew it could never be. 

Loki’s stride was steady and you had no trouble matching his long gait. Curious how he kept his gaze on the ground when there were such beautiful sights up above but you chose not to mention it. As he stared at the ground, a question fell from his lips, most likely a personal thought that just slipped out. “Did you lose your boots?" 

A smile tugged at the corner of your lips, his confusion amusing. Back when you were children, catching Loki unawares was a rare victory indeed. You felt a similar satisfaction now. "I did not.”

“Then where -”

“In my chambers. I like to feel the grass beneath my feet, to connect with nature.”

He regarded you closely for a moment before laughing gently. “You always were strange.”

For a brief second, Loki’s seidr blossomed. The gentle green light shone in his eyes and the strength of his magic, of his very will to live, grew tenfold. You felt a physical tingle on your skin as it passed the boundaries of his body, reaching out to touch all the living things around it. 

Instinctively, your own magic danced around you, joyous for the company of another witch. All it took was a thought to visualise your seidrs. The wispy silver strands shimmered green, growing brighter with each flower you passed. You reached down to pluck a beautiful white lily from the ground and imbued it with your power. The petals firmed up, preserved perfectly in this moment of life for as long as your magic remained, then you handed it to the prince. 

Loki glanced between you and the flower, unsure how to proceed. With a soft chuckle, you lifted your hand to his face and balanced the lily behind his ear just as you had done when you were children. “Gorgeous.”

“Mother is very proud of her flowers.”

“I was not speaking of the lily, Sire." 

The prince hummed, amused, then reached down for a similar flower of his own. He placed it behind your ear and smiled fondly. "Beautiful.”

“You only say that to be polite.”

“I assure you, the truth is quite the opposite.”

You continued your quiet walk through the gardens, all too aware of how Loki drew further into himself with each step. He pulled his magic back into his core, the bright green shimmer a loss to you both. Although physically closer than ever, you’d never felt so far from the prince before. 

Neither spoke as you approached the river where you had been sat before; no doubt your feet had led you back to the place where you had found a few moment’s peace in the hope of providing a similar feeling to Loki. Although reluctant, Loki joined you on the ground as you watched the water rush by, unable to resist dipping your feet back into the flow. 

Stretched out beside him, you turned to Loki and asked gently, “What ails you, dear prince?”

“What makes you think that I am somehow ill?”

“You’ve been crying. I can tell.”

“A trick of the starlight, I assure you.”

“Do not pretend, Loki. We’ve known each other for too long. It’s not on your face, it’s in your soul.” You stretched your fingers out so the tips brushed by his, desperate to deepen this fleeting connection but afraid of the rejection should your offer of more be refused. “Tell me and I can ease your pain.”

“Nothing - certainly not your parlour tricks - can drive back the darkness which surrounds me.”

The trickling stream carried your fears away, although the same could not be said for Loki. He sat there still as ever, watching each and every shadow. You wanted to see the monsters from which he ran but could make out nothing but trees and mountains in the distance. Needing to understand what had turned your oldest friend into this broken shell of a man, you broadened your senses and allowed your magic to flow over his body. 

Loki narrowed his gaze, sharp as a knife even in the dark, well aware of what you were doing, but made no attempt to fight it. Instead, his eyes flickered shut and he gave in to your examination. What you found shattered your heart into a million tiny pieces. 

Beneath the carefully maintained illusion, his skin was littered with scars. Deep and shallow, inflicted by a horrifying range of weapons, each mark was unique in the painful story it told. The memories of his flesh were distorted, purposefully forgotten to avoid the horrors, but you each and every bite of a blade, the searing burn of blasters and the cold emptiness of the void. 

They had found him in the dark recesses of the universe and tortured him for years, broken him and moulded him into something else entirely. No wonder you couldn’t find the sweet prince you’d known years ago; he was long since dead, murdered by sadists, his body and soul twisted into the damaged man before you.

You jumped back, too frightened to look deeper. Loki shook his head and said bitterly, “See? Not even you can bear to look at me. Leave me be and enjoy your stay on Asgard.”

“Loki, no.” You caught his arm and tugged him back to the ground. Slowly, cautiously, you wrapped your arms around his shoulders and held him tightly against your chest. Burying your face in the crook of his neck, you whispered, “I’m so sorry for what they did to you.”

Extricating himself from your embrace, Loki stared intently at the river, unwilling - or unable - to meet your sympathetic gaze. “They showed me the truth of the universe. It is cold and lonely and awful. You remember those games we played as children, how we danced in the fields, innocent and carefree, and imagined far off worlds? Well, I’ve seen the depths of creation and it isn’t light and good and pure. The only purity there is darkness and it spreads like a disease through all life.”

“There is still light, still good in the world, Loki.”

“I cannot see it from inside my cell.”

You frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You aren’t aware?” he huffed bitterly. “My father sentenced me to an eternity in prison. To repent for my crimes against Midgard, for succumbing to the will of a puppeteer greater than myself, for losing my very mind…”

“And yet here you walk free.”

“As if a pathetic forcefield would stop me." 

This time you did take Loki’s hand in yours, running your thumb softly over the broken skin of his knuckles. "There is hope, Loki. Always hope. That alone will push back the darkness. It is the best weapon we possess.”

“What did you see?”

“Pardon?”

Loki tugged his hand from yours and folded it neatly in his lap. Expression hard as stone, he practically hissed, “You saw my past. Your foresight extends into the future too. What did you see when you looked upon my timeline?”

“After what I saw of your past, I was too frightened to look ahead.”

“So much for hope of a better future, then.”

“The timelines are fickle, Loki. You know that. Even now the world is moving in a direction I cannot predict. The future is in flux and I would rather savour the present than lose myself to what is yet to be.”

“And how would you rather savour it?” he asked, leaning in. Loki lifted a hand to your cheek, his lips twitching upwards as you turned into his palm. There was a darkness in his eyes, a mean glint as he brushed his fingers across your skin, igniting a crush you thought had long since passed. 

No matter how your body responded to him, you refused to give Loki the satisfaction of this game. This wasn’t about love or even lust; it was a mean, childish attempt to regain some control and you weren’t going to play. You shoved his shoulder, the sudden, violent response eliciting a genuine laugh. Loki fell gracefully back to the ground, pulling you down with him. His arm laid heavy around your shoulder, holding you close to his chest, the gentle beat of his heart calming your anger. 

Loki huffed as you curled your legs up, your damp feet wetting the bottom of his thin trousers. “Serves you right,” you muttered.

“Y/N…”

“Loki…” you responded in the same tone. 

He squeezed your arm tightly, not hard enough to hurt but more than enough to show his irritation. How you’d missed teasing him. Loki shifted beneath you so that you were both on flat ground, able to look into the chasm of one another’s eyes. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, his fingers on your waist shifted anxiously as he considered his words. 

To ease his struggle, you projected a calming wave of energy from your seidr. The effects were instantaneous, even if only temporary, and Loki nodded gratefully for the burst of courage. “Thank you.”

“For what, exactly, dear prince?”

“This. For soothing the pain.”

“I have done nothing -”

“Just being near you calms the storm. You always did bring me hope, made me think that a better future was possible. I am grateful for your companionship tonight. I have missed your friendship.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” Glancing up at the sky, the morning light already beginning to shine over the mountaintops, you reached for his hand and said, “We should return to the palace.”

Loki linked his fingers with yours, keeping you in place. He looked out to the distance and sighed. “Just a few more minutes. Please.”

Settling back down at his side, you rested your head on his chest, feeling safe as your magics mingled around you. The worries of the day to come faded away as the comfort of being with your oldest friend surrounded you like a cosy blanket. “For you, my friend, I’d make all the time in the realm.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! Come chat to me on tumblr :D


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